Martin,
Yes, people used to repair tubular tires. It seems to me that as a youngster it was something one did out of neccessity. Now, in my aging condition, I can't muster the motivation to undertake a tire repair. A friend just gave me one of those patch kits the other day as he was clearing out some old bike stuff. I looked at it and said to myself, wow, there's an antique! Not likely I will be using it, but it's nice to look at! Repairing tubulars isn't that difficult, but for some reason I just can't see me doing it anymore.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
Doing my best to avoid flats and poking myself with big needles while
fixing tires!
>
> There are currently a couple of eBay sellers who insist that sewup tires
> can be repaired (although noone in his right mind would ever want to do
> it).
>
> Description for Item #3615024551 (Tubular sew up Needle Kit) says "This
> was used to repair your tubulars. Nowadays we buy new tubulars but they
> can be repaired."
>
> Description for Item #2180342500(Vittoria Sewup Tubular Tire Repair Kit)
> says in part "There's so much detail here, I mean, people used to repair
> their sewups !!! You can definitely use this kit, and your infinite
> patience, to repair a nice classic sewup. You can also just put these on
> a shelf to commemorate classic "attention to detail". "
>
> Are these sellers nuts or is it true that, in the old days, people used
> to repair their tubular tires? If so, I'm certainly going to regret
> trashing all those punctured Italian hand-made silk sewups.
>
> Martin Needleman
> Annapolis, MD